what is the likelihood of success of that which is known as the deal of the century . what role has the media played in the region's issues. the twelve al-jazeera forum the goal the arabs and the world amid current developments doha april twenty eighth and twenty ninth two thousand and eighteen. he was the world's most wanted man and last moving ahead with him was often. in line was very nervous about meeting had not met a western reporter before in part one of an exclusive two part documentary. speaks to those who met osama bin ladin he never showed hostility towards me and the west i knew bin landen on all disease.

security tight as kim jong un prepares to become the first north korean leader to enter the south since the korean war. hello there on joe now this is al jazeera live from london also coming up russia takes its version of the alleged gas attack in duma to the chemical weapons watchdog in the hague. president trumps dr withdraws his nomination to head veteran affairs after allegations he overprescribed drugs and drank on the job. and the french government explains how it plans to improve life for the ten percent of the population in the country's deprived suburbs. and all preparations are being made for

a historic face to face meeting between the leaders of north and south korea moon j it will host kim jong il in the south korean border village of panmunjom on friday morning they'll discuss a range of issues including pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs it's hoped the meeting will help ease tensions on the peninsula ahead of a meeting between kim and u.s. president donald trump that's planned for may. june well let's look now at how the day is likely to unfold kim jong un will travel into the demilitarized zone under tight security to meet moon jay in making him the first north korean leader to cross the border since the korean war kim will be flanked by nine officials including his sister who led pyongyang's delegation to this year's winter olympics after meeting in the morning kim and moon will have lunch and plant a tree using soil from both countries and the day will wrap up with dinner and a movie called spring of one. diplomatic editor james bases in pageview that's

on the south korean side of the border. the final rehearsal took place in the south after noon body doubles playing the role of supreme leader kim and president moon both sides very keen but the choreography is just right because of the camera angles and the images but also because of the important question of security this is quite a remarkable event when you think what has happened on the korean peninsula in recent months the fact that tensions have been so high here last year particularly during the summer last year and really a remarkable turnaround of events bringing us to this first of two possible high level summits what changed what allowed room for diplomacy i've been gauging that at the u.n. in new york in european capitals and here on the korean peninsula i filed this report from the north korean capital. when you walk around pyongyang everywhere you

seem to go you hear military music blaring from shops and loudspeakers last summer the drums of war beating particularly heavily it was arguably the tensest time on the korean peninsula in decades in september north korean foreign minister real young ho headed from his ministry here to new york to give his speech at the annual meeting of world leaders at the u.n. ahead of him in the speaking order the new president of the us the united states has great strength and patients but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. al-jazeera has learnt that hours after that speech foreign minister re sought a brief meeting with the u.n. secretary general antonio good terrorists at the end of the meeting the north

korean invited a senior united nations official to pyongyang a trip the un had been trying to arrange for over a year at the beginning of december jeffrey feltman then the un's head of political affairs made a visit to pyongyang in meetings with north korean officials feltman suggested that kim jong un used his new year's speech to strike a more conciliatory tone he suggested too that the winter olympics which are about to be staged in south korea would be a useful occasion to improve relations it's not clear whether the north koreans listened to his advice but they did the things he suggested the leaders sister kim yo chung's visit to the olympics change the atmosphere between the north and south starting a diplomatic dialogue there was another important back channel to sweden's foreign minister margot will strum authorized expanded conversations with the north koreans at one point had been planned for foreign minister to meet the then u.s.

secretary of state rex tillerson in stockholm that plan changed when president trump surprised his own officials saying he wanted a face to face meeting with kim jong un and then secret dispatched his cia director mike pompei o. to pyongyang to begin the negotiations i've been speaking to diplomats at the u.n. in new york and here on the korean peninsula strategic discussions here in north korea are made at the highest level and done in secret but everyone i've spoken to believes that the bellicose speech by donald trump at the u.n. general assembly was what kick started the current diplomatic efforts james per hour just era pyongyang well we've been talking to koreans from both sides of the border about their expectations of the summit here's what some of them had to say. i wish for the summit is that our people can travel back and forth and live together. once again he completed nuclear weapons and his missiles can reach qualm

what's left as a leader he must inspire loyalty in twenty three million people with a given loyalty no because they are on the verge of starvation following the sanctions. knows this so he came to the table with denuclearization card. for more than two years the relations had to be in frozen and we couldn't access took a song in the three com plex but finally on the twenty seventh the summit is scheduled that would mean that after the summit the coming issue will be discussed and those three complex will be the top priority i am full of such anticipation that. moscow has taken a number of syrians including children to the headquarters of the chemical weapons watchdog in the netherlands to support their claim that the gas attack in duma was faked the witnesses being presented to the o.p.c. w.

at the hague to recount what they saw on april seventh russia says the syrian statements prove the chemical weapon attack was staged allegations the us and its allies strongly deny. they've distributed fake footage sent out by the fake humanitarians called the white helmets we've seen it all we saw the a borat scenes of choking children choking victims of poisoning right after the seventh of april the grand propaganda machine of the western trio came to action the u.k. the u.s. and france. been following events for us out there hey sean what evidence have they presented for this claim that the alleged attack in duma was faked. well the only evidence that we've managed to see here in the press conference is really videos and effects witness statements that they say were present at the

hospital when the alleged attack took place but what was quite striking is that the video and picture evidence that they presented was accompanied by their own take on it which was talking about evidence for example how it couldn't have been real picos the damage didn't fit the. the attack had been described and there was a lot of condemnation of the of the white helmets condemning them as an act as a terrorist group supported by the u.s. and the u.k. without any other evidence backing that up as well but what was quite striking about the statements that were provided by the seventeen syrians that were brought including that of a young boy son was that the rule quite short there were very similar in terms of what they were saying a lot of the people that were presented were working out the hospital and it seemed

to follow like a very similar situation that all of a sudden there were a lot of people who were being brought in from the shelter a bar of and then a lot of people who were being doused in water but that there was no evidence of any chemical attack but yet there was no scientific evidence to back that up it is only their word that we have to go on with that so until we get any definitive answers from the a p c w about what they've managed to gauge from the sites in duma really we only have the word to go on it jonah. who. are all those in attendance at least listening to this evidence are taking it seriously. again very difficult but the o.p.c. w. has been quite keen to distance itself from many of the more dramatic issues here at stake here that they've maintained that this presentation was not something that they sought that this was something which the russians were absolute determined

they wanted to do to present these witness statements these people that were brought in and that they are conducting their own investigation this is something that the russian ambassador here pointed out saying that this is they don't want to interfere with the work of your p c w we're doing on the ground about is there work but again a lot of condemnation with the other work with the u.s. with the u.k. and of course the u.k. and france as well has really rebuffed on those and has called it a bro test. presentation of what they're of their version of the events and so with this it's again going down that road of information war something which the russian ambassador himself referred to saying that russians are in effect accused of of putting out fake news but we're not the only ones he was saying but again where is the evidence to back up what they're

saying something that we really don't know at this time and certainly we are very keen to maintain their neutrality in all of this information war as much as they possibly can ok. thank you. president trumps personal doctor and nominee for the very composed of us veteran affairs secretary has been forced to take himself out of consideration for the post off the mounting misconduct allegations ronnie jackson who was also a white house physician to barack obama and george w. bush was put forward for the position of david shool can resigned in march but the u.s. navy rear admiral who's now we've drawn from the running off to claims he crashed a car while driving under the influence of alcohol and that he overprescribed drugs or white house correspondent kimberly i was going out to work environment donald trump's personal physician ronnie jackson has withdrawn his name to lead the

veterans affairs administration following allegations that he not only handed out prescription drugs like candy to staff members and could not account for the missing pills but also that he attended a party where secret service were present became intoxicated and subsequently allegedly crashed a government vehicle dr ronnie jackson has denied these allegations calling them false and fabricated the president initially standing and defending his nominee to lead the sprawling briere ocracy for the veterans administration saying fact that these are allegations from disgruntled employees but apparently this becoming just too much for the doctor he withdrew his name on wednesday morning and it is unclear whether or not he will continue in his role as the president's personal physician however the frustrations clearly evident as the president called into a morning chat show here in the united states calling the fox and friends news

program that he so often watches venting his frustrations over the ongoing russia probe into whether or not there was any collusion between his presidential campaign and russian officials calling the former f.b.i. director who led up that investigation till he was fired by the president a liar and a leaker guilty of. rheims but then the headline from that interview was the fact that the president said that for now he will keep a hands off approach to the justice department investigation but that could change that is certainly significant many would view this as impeding an investigation even obstruction of justice if you were to fire the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein or even the special counsel robert muller in fact many americans have already indicated they would take to the streets in protest some three hundred sixty thousand have signed a petition saying they would do so say no when is above the law not even the president of the united states more to come this half hour including hundreds

attend the funeral of a promise to journalists by israeli forces while covering protests at the gaza border and politicians debate big breaks in question should britain remain inside europe's tariff free customs union when it eventually leaves the e.u. . well i was being wet in the levant the last day or so and it's not going to stop anytime soon look at the cloud it was doing really is circulating it's not going anywhere as a result of that it's spreading the largest of rain if you can call it that and the strength the winds virtually everywhere from sinai north was a nice woods through iraq such a wet spell of attempts is taking much of a dip is whether or not they run is fairly heavy and it has been scorched flashlights the rain hasn't yet reached across the border into iran might well do

that but his concentration i think is still going to be the lowlands iraq west was for at least twenty four hours and even by the time we get to saturday beirut still looking at least a shot is it twenty five degrees south of all this it's looking fine and say throughout iran is mostly five but the caucasus region seems likely up here as well so having seen some storms recently and the dust storms and dusty whether it's setting down to be thirty three in dire how about the same in mekele it warm climate is building to the south if anyone is going to get showers it's possibly more likely yemen and sunglasses seem to be right in the middle of the full cost weapons or been some useful rain recently in cape town still the western cape show you some clouds streaking across it but i don't think it is the right border it.

welcome back a quick reminder now of our top stories on al jazeera final preparations are being made for a historic face to face meeting between the leaders of north and south korea it's

hoped the talks will ease tensions ahead of a meeting between moon and the u.s. president donald trump later this year. moscow has taken a number of syrians into the children to the headquarters of the chemical weapons watchdog to support their claim that the alleged gas attack in duma was faked. and wrongly jack's trumps personal doctor nominee for u.s. veteran affairs secretary has quit his bid for the post after being accused of several instances of misconduct. a u.s. senate committee has approved a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting special counsel robert mueller from being fired by president trump miller's investigation into russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election has been repeatedly attacked by trump but it's highly unlikely to be passed into law senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said he won't allow a vote on the bill and president trump would almost certainly refuse to sign it into law anyway. in the last few minutes the u.s.

senate says confirm donald trump's pick my compo as the new secretary of state came through a difficult confirmation process where lawmakers questioned him over his hardline stance towards iran and north korea is currently head of the cia he replaces rex tillerson who was fired last month after repeatedly clashing with the president when it's go live now to rosen and jordan who's in washington for us rose what's this appointment likely to do for u.s. foreign policy do you think well if anything jonah is going to present a more united front between the white house and the state department one of the problems that the previous secretary of state rex tillerson had was that in some ways he tried to be more like a traditional republican on foreign policy issues and not take the the extremely conservative hard line position that the u.s.

president donald trump wanted to take particularly when it comes to iran and to north korea mike pompei o has long been known as a policy hawk someone who believes in taking a very harsh line with countries considered to be rivals or enemies of the united states and so not just on dealing with iran and not just on dealing with north korea but you can also expect perhaps a more hostile tone as it were against the against russia even though the president himself has not wanted to was be as tough on moscow as other conservatives here in washington would like the u.s. to be. joined live for us in washington thanks very much rose. now nigeria's president mahmoud who has been summoned by the senate to testify about the government's response to a spate of recent communal killings moments erupted between cattle herders and

farmers in a central nigerian community on tuesday were these day teen people were killed the escalation has raised questions about the government's ability to maintain security a palestinian journalist who was shot by security forces israeli security forces while covering protests at the gaza border has been laid to rest my double who's hussein died on wednesday from injuries he sustained during demonstrations two weeks ago stephanie decker has the latest from gaza. a large crowd has gathered here in the jabalya refugee camp to pay their final respects ahmed abu hussein he is the second journalist killed by israeli sniper fire now he was cool to back into gaza overnight he's certain flying in and the mosque where people are paying their final respects his press vest his bullet proof vest that he was wearing at the time when he was shot is with him. certainly there is video of the incident when he was shot in april thirteenth that shows he was standing in a crowd far away from

a fence when it appears that he was specifically targeted is laid on me before that they know each gunshot which means they know that this gun shop is going to kill business this is the point. and yes it has been killed by they have been met by the israeli snipers. but the same twenty five years old is now the second palestinian journalist being laid to rest and has drawn some international condemnation calling for an independent investigation the israeli army says it does not target journalists and that it's going to look into the details of their deaths but certainly anyone you speak to here on has a very clear opinion that these are deliberate targets that the israeli army that

these snipers are deliberately targeting them to try and stop them from protesting everyone here will tell you even people we've spoken to have been shot before that they will return to the protests that they want their rights just like everyone else they feel forgotten and they believe that through these protests for once finally there is some international spotlight on their plight. the armenian parliament is expected to hold an extraordinary session next week to vote for a new prime minister the country was plunged into. political crisis this week after . step down as prime minister following massive anti-government protests parliament says a vote will be held on the first of may to elect a new leader but protests are continuing in the capital with people demanding snap parliamentary elections. have been protests outside the spanish court after five men were cleared of the gang rape of an eighteen year old woman at the two thousand and sixteen pamplona bull running festival after a five month trial the men who belong to

a wants group pulled the wolfpack were convicted of the lesser crime of sexual abuse and given nine year sentences protesters outside the court chanted it's not abuse it's rape. the french government has launched a plan it says will tackle the discrimination and deprivation faced by people living in poor suburban areas about ten percent of france's population live in regions with high unemployment crime and poverty. is in paris at the lords of the new strategy. what the man behind this report former ministers only bono says that what is needed is a big bang for the suburbs a completely new way of thinking now bono was tossed by the president emanuel mark want to come up with recommendations on how to improve life for people in some of father's poorest districts now polly says the what the french state must do is stop seeing the suburbs and as a problem but as a solution a source of opportunity he says what's needed is an investment of fifteen billion

euros on education literacy vegetal literacy mobility transportation jobs and apprenticeship schemes and also urban renovation better housing facilities he wants to see that the suburbs become hot spots of excellence and education culture and sports where we visited one suburb in the town of heaven in normandy and we spoke to residents. like many towns in france ever has a charming historical center but on the outskirts of districts crammed with social housing unemployment is high here and people's hopes for the future are low or looking meanies some local officials want to prove things but it is not easy to get the government invests in northwestern heaven will ever change here it's always the same there's no jobs regional council address at azeri is trying to bring change he has a vision of areas like this prospering. with it all and. we are building houses that

people can buy. successive governments have tried and failed to address the problems in the suburbs president emanuel marc calls government is proposing a new action plan it's consulted local officials like greece at a zoe to find out how best to invest in jobs transport and education he says what's needed is a whole new approach. from america we have to stop. only support was a ball and keeping all the ethnic communities together putting everyone in towers we need to explode this we are thinking we need to scatter social towns pretty serious need to be liked and it was a part of friends some say one answer is to stop seeing people in the suburbs as a problem but rather as a solution this company trains people in laying fiber optic cables in the boston say there's a huge advantage to being in this area because there are plenty of young people who

need work and. want to put in many people who have been marginalized in life are lacking in self-confidence so we tell them look this is a period that could be a solution you're capable you can learn and most of these trainees are unemployed but nearly all are expected to find work after the course. i heard about this from someone who'd done this training before he told me it was great he advised me to take it up because it be easy to find a job afterwards possibly to what extent the government's new plan will change the suburbs and improve their image is unclear what people want here is to be reconnected to a society that they feel has long forgotten them it's ash butler al-jazeera if the . u.k. politicians of approved a motion calling for the government to pursue a customs union in bricks and negotiations the vote puts pressure on prime minister to resume a's breaks its strategy she's refused to pursue a customs union with the european union but some believe leaving the tariff free

zone will hurt britain's economy. correspondent laura has more from westminster. well there was a vote in the end but it didn't really mean anything because the government didn't turn up for rates and so the position of the vote was that the government's must change its position rather than saying we will not have an economic arrangement at all with the european union future this vote said please government change your position continue your talks over staying in the customs union with the european union but of course that was one because so many on the government side to oppose this idea simply didn't turn up so in that sense he didn't mean anything but what was significant about this was a number of concerns venky's people from the ruling party who argued against their own government's position and said look we can't have a brick sit we want bricks if we want to control our borders and stop letting so many people in and all these things they talk about but continue our trading relationship with the european union to allow businesses which exports manufacture

selfish to france and things like that to move their goods quickly across the borders in the coming weeks there will be a meaningful votes it will be binding on parliament but it looks at the moments that the arithmetic is that the government might lose that those if it does it will be very good news for manufacturers people in the food and drinks industry people i that's who want the customs union to stay it's potentially extremely bad news for the prime minister because those hardliners on her side who are insisting on breaking every single part of the relationship with the european union might try to force a leadership challenge against her so just a few months to go until the u.k. leaves the european union and everything still to play for these things are now starting very much to come to a head. more than forty companies in the united kingdom a pledge to get rid of unnecessary plastic packaging in an effort to tackle pollution the businesses which include major british supermarkets have signed up to

eliminate single use plastics by twenty twenty five they say by then all packaging should be reusable recyclable and calm possible the voluntary scheme comes as you u.k. politicians consider changing the way supermarkets pay for collecting and recycling their plastic waste on the whole they island of boracay in the philippines has been closed for a six month clean up to its have been banned from the island while the authorities improve the infrastructure and volunteers remove rubbish from the ones pristine beaches present rodrigo to turkey ordered to shut down this month after calling the resort a cesspool critics say it's an overreaction affecting people who depend on the island for their jobs. it's painful for us to lose our jobs and it's also certain even though i don't have my own family i support my siblings now this is happening we can't do anything but accept it and. you can find much more as over all the website log on at w.w.w.

dot al-jazeera dot com. before we go quick look at the headlines final preparations are being made for a historic face to face meeting between the leaders of north and south korea in will host kim jong un in the south korean border village of one job on friday morning our diplomatic editor james basine pageview that's just on the south korean side of the border. the final rehearsal took place this afternoon body doubles playing the role of supreme leader kim and president moon both sides very keen that the choreography is just right because of the camera angles and the images but also because of the important question of security this is quite a remarkable event when you think what has happened on the korean peninsula in recent months the fact that tensions have been so high here moscow has taken

a number of syrians including children to the headquarters of the chemical weapons watchdog to support their claim that the gas attack in duma was faked russia says the syrian statements prove the chemical attack was staged allegations the u.s. and its allies strongly deny president trumps personal doctor has withdrawn himself from consideration for veteran affairs secretary after mounting misconduct allegations ronnie jackson is accused of crashing a car while driving under the influence and over prescribing drugs. the u.s. senate committee has approved a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting special counsel robert mueller from being fired by president trump morals investigation into russian meddling in the twenty sixteen election has been repeatedly attacked by trump but the bill is highly unlikely to be passed into law because the senate majority leader says he won't allow a vote. and for more than forty companies in the u.k. of pledge to get rid of unnecessary plastic packaging in

a bid to tackle pollution the businesses which include major british supermarkets have signed up to eliminate single use plastics by twenty twenty five. the holiday island of baraka i in the philippines has been closed for a six month clean up tourists have been banned from the island while four of his improve the infrastructure and volunteers remove rubbish from the once pristine beaches president gregory good to turkey ordered the shut down this month up to calling the result a cesspool that's all for now inside story. targeting plastic more than forty companies in the u.k. have caves to.